I find the last continent

Frogs that don't hop, mysterious mountains, ancient ceremonies ... in the latest despatch from his eight-year Genesis project, Sebastião Salgado photographs in Venezuela a corner of the planet that is untouched by time

I find the last continent

Frogs that don't hop, mysterious mountains, ancient ceremonies ... in the latest despatch from his eight-year Genesis project, Sebastião Salgado photographs in Venezuela a corner of the planet that is untouched by time

Friday 21 September 2007 19.07 EDT
First published on Friday 21 September 2007 19.07 EDT

Venezuela is famous for its oil, but it has retained all its natural beauty. Inside the Amazon basin, there are these incredible untouched forests, waterfalls, peaks and tepuis (table-top mountains) - I kept expecting to come across dinosaurs roaming the valleys.

I was there for two months, and spent much of that time climbing. Four days up a mountain, then a week camping and two days to come down - it wasn't as exhausting as it might have been, because the terrain is so beautiful. The Kukenan tepui is impossible to climb, however, because of all the erosion, so we could get there only by helicopter. But the erosion makes for the most beautiful valleys, and to see the rocks falling is really something. Beautiful, but deadly. We met few people, Indians with very little language. They are so isolated that they don't hear about politics or Chavez; they're just interested in survival and extracting what they need to get by from the forest.

The Kukenan tepui is not one of the highest - it's only 2,600m - but it is stunning. It was as if I had found Atlantica, a lost continent from the beginning of the planet.